Innovative Storyteller Releases Latest Wonder

The minute his extraordinary kids’ novel The
Invention of Hugo Cabret hit bookstores in 2007, Brian Selznick 88 IL was on his way to winning the hearts and minds of young readers around the world. The 530-page
book unfolds like a silent movie, with entire chapters told in mesmerizing
pencil drawings. With its cinematic feel and
magical take on historical fiction, Hugo
Cabret set the literary world on fire, winning the 2008 Caldecott Medal. In November a
feature film adaptation directed by Martin Scorsese – with award-winning cinematographer Robert Richardson 79 FAV behind the camera – is due to hit the big screen.

Now, in a new
book out this month, Selznick is pushing the boundaries of his hybrid storytelling
style even further. The book is called Wonderstruck, and in it he creates one work of
fiction by weaving together two completely separate narratives – one told entirely in
pictures, the other told entirely in words.

“I wanted to take what I
had learned from Hugo and make something new with it; I wanted to do something
better,” says Selznick, who spent three years bringing Wonderstruck’s parallel stories to life. At 639
pages, it’s another massive work, moving between two 12-year-old runaways who are both deaf – one
a girl in 1927 who goes in search of a famous movie actress, the other a boy in
1977, looking for the father he’s never met. Separated by 50 years, the
protagonists’ journeys converge at one of the most magical real-life
destinations for children: the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan.

Just weeks after its release, the book is
generating a level of buzz that’s rare for a children’s book. The Wall Street
Journal, USA Today, The
Atlantic, Huffington Post and NPR,
among others, are all applauding Selznick’s latest effort. The Washington
Post called Wonderstruck “superb,” saying that “Brian
Selznick proves to be that rare creator capable of following one masterpiece .
. . with another even more brilliantly executed.” Publishers Weekly, which gave the book a starred review, said Wonderstruck “should
cement [Selznick’s] reputation as one of the most innovative storytellers at
work today.”

The inspirations for
Wonderstruck were wide-ranging, from E.L. Konigsburg’s 1967 classic From
the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which chronicles two siblings who run away tothe
Metropolitan Museum of Art, to Hiroshima
Maiden, a complex,
split-narrative puppet show by acclaimed puppeteer Dan Hurlin, a friend of
Selznick’s. But the biggest influence by far was Through Deaf Eyes, a PBS television
documentary on deafness and the evolution of deaf culture that he
happened to see while still working on Hugo
Cabret.

“One of the things that
struck me so much was the profound impact that sound in the movies had for deaf
people,” Selznick says. “Before, they could be part of popular culture, but
once sound was introduced, it was a huge blow to that community. They were
completely shut out.” The pictures-only story of Selznick’s young female
protagonist, Rose, takes place in 1927, the year Hollywood released the first
commercial feature-length motion picture, The
Jazz Singer.

“With Wonderstruck,” says Selznick, “we experience Rose’s story in a way
that reflects the way she experiences life.” At the same time, he says, the
journeys of Rose and the novel’s other protagonist, reflects the search for
acceptance that defines coming-of-age for the deaf. “It’s something that fascinates
me and rings true in so many ways, whether you’re growing up as an artist or a
gay person or whatever,” says Selznick. “That idea of searching for a culture
or a community outside your biological one seemed like a really resonant idea.”